Thank goodness for Burghley TV. I didn’t have time to watch any of the Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials this year but it’s all available on demand.

Burghley does an awesome job of bringing the event into the living rooms of eventers all around the world and I’m really going to enjoy watching the rides.

You can take an up-close look at the jumps. I just wish they put some people in the photos so you got a better appreciation of the sheer magnitude of some of them. Burghley is a beautiful course — with its fairy tale castle in the background it

Now, on to the results. New Zealand riders dominated the event, taking six of the top ten spots. Jock Paget won on Clifton Promise (he had the top two horses going into show jumping but chose to withdraw Clifton Lush). Andrew Nicholson had a remarkable three horses in the top eight going into showjumping and ended up second on Avebury, third on Nereo and eighth on Calico Joe! Jonelle Richards was sixth on The Deputy and Mark Todd was seventh. Clifton Promise has now won Badminton and Burghley in the same year, the first time that’s happened since 1989 and Jock is set up to win a possible Eventing Grand Slam in 2014 if he wins Rolex.

Cross country was demanding.  Andrew Nicholson, who has more than 50 starts at Burghley deemed it to be one of the most difficult courses he’s ridden there. Sixty two horse/riders started and 42 completed the course. There were only three double clears — two by Andrew Nicholson and one by Jock Paget. 12 riders were eliminated (11 from rider falls, including the only American Rider, Buck Davidson), and 5 horses retired. The vast majority of penalties were time faults.

In show jumping Paget had two rails in hand and used one, but managed to hold off Andrew Nicholson.